Luke's cool hand keep Tiger lurking in the distance

The monster that was supposed to be Medinah, host club for the 88th USPGA Championship, proved to be nothing stronger than a cat's meow as the third round took shape . Overwatering during preparation and further softening by overnight rain meant that the world's top players could play darts with their shots to the green, leading to some incredible bunching at the top of the leaderboard.

Luke Donald, the Beaconsfield boy now domiciled in - this week at any rate - the distinctly non-windy city of Chicago, mastered these typically American conditions best of all birdieing four of the ﬁrst six holes to move to 12 under par, then chipping in on the 9th for 13 under. But such was the log-jam at the top that there were seven players within four shots of that mark, among them Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia . Also in the mix was the extravagantly clad Ian Poulter, gorgeous in purple and pink who, at seven under after 13 holes, was jointly 13th. Further back in the ﬁ eld, tied for 29th when he ﬁnished, was Justin Rose.

The Englishman chipped in at the last for a birdie three and a round of 70 and remarked, wistfully, that it was the ﬁrst time he had chipped in at the last hole of a major championship since that memorable moment at Royal Birkdale when, by doing so, he came fourth on the Open Championship as a 17-year-old amateur.

Donald started off shakily, ﬁnding the rough at the first and needing to hole from 10 feet for a par. But that seemed to encourage him and he holed from eight feet at the water-strewn 2nd, from 20ft at the 3rd and then easily reached the long 5th, 537 yards, in two for another birdie. A fourth followed at the 6th from 18 feet and Donald, who had said that he intended to 'have fun' on the course this week, went on his contented way.

Woods began with an outrageous par four. He drove into the trees, hacked out into thick rough and scampered on to the green with a hit-and-hope third. Then he holed the 35ft putt and punched the air so vigorously that it might have been the winning stroke. Perhaps it was, for Woods, inspired, hit his tee shot at the 191 yards 2nd to 6ft for a birdie, two-putted the long 5th for another and hit a superb second to 3ft at the 7th. Another birdie at the 9th took him to 11 under and by now none of the ﬁ eld would need to have had their ears to the ground to hear the rumblings coming from Tiger's quarter.

Garcia went to the turn in a threeunder 33, on the face of it a good enough start, but the Spaniard is still plagued by a standard of putting that comes nowhere near to matching the remainder of a hugely impressive game. For instance, he hit a towering iron into the long 5th that pitched and stopped dead no more than 12ft away. But he ﬁdgeted and faffed around, took an age to settle and then, as has been his manner recently, hit a putt so tentative it was never going to reach the hole let alone go in. He got his birdie all right, but he had created an outstanding eagle chance and at the level at which he is trying to succeed, such opportunities have to be taken.

Henrik Stenson, who shared the second-round lead, and Donald have reached a stage in their careers where, if they are to express the full extent of their talent, they have to start winning majors. Both are currently in the Ryder Cup team to play the Americans at The K Club and the European team captain, Ian Woosnam, can be thankful for that: they are precisely the kind of solid citizens he needs.

Stenson has a game that hugely impressed Colin Montgomerie when the pair played at Abu Dhabi earlier this year. The Swede was bombing the ball clean over bunkers that were placed, at 300 yards from the tee, to catch errant drives. 'Would I like to play with him in the Ryder Cup,' said Monty, echoing a questioner. 'Of course I would. I have to lay up short of those bunkers he can ﬂy.' Donald is prepared to admit that he needs to take a step up. 'I'm at the stage where I should be competing and having a chance to win majors,' he says. 'But I keep having poor ﬁ rst rounds, 78 in the Masters and 74s in the US Open and the Open, and I think it was because I was putting too much pressure on myself. 'I would say to myself "I'm not going to press, I'm not going to get upset when I hit bad shots," and then I would do it. I did it at the Masters, I did it at the Open Championship, I did it at the US Open.

I kept telling myself not to do it, but I did it. So this week I was determined to have a little bit more fun out there, dismiss bad shots, tell myself they really didn't matter. After all, there are more important things than golf; certain things like Heather Clarke passing away, it puts things into perspective.'

Donald can be a study in contradictions. He is the quintessential Englishman in manner, and yet lives in Chicago. He is a relatively short hitter who is thriving on the longest course (7,561 yards) in major championship history; he has a diffident approach to life that conceals a ﬁerce desire to do well and he has outstripped his more obviously talented and more outgoing Walker Cup team mate Paul Casey with his softly, softly approach.

He even garnered a few votes for the best-looking man on the US Tour in a poll conducted by a magazine among teenage followers of golf. They were, though, not enough to trouble the poll's winner, Adam Scott.